Announcing the Second Cohort of THI Moving Image Lab Public Fellows
Four graduate students are part of the second cohort of THI Moving Image Lab Public Fellows, collectively working in arts curation, exhibition production, and archival research. The 2025-26 fellows bring their academic expertise and scholarly interests to three esteemed arts institutions where they will hone their creative skills, foster relationships between the campus and community organizations, and gain professional experience that will help them succeed as artists, researchers, and curators after graduation.
History of Consciousness PhD student, Brian Kantor, was a curatorial and research fellow at the Isaac Julien Studio in London in Fall 2025, assisting Prof. Mark Nash in the early stages of a curatorial and exhibition project on art and ecological crisis; he continues to consult on the project, which is now being led by Nicole Sarmiento, an MFA student in Environmental Art and Social Practice and a multi-disciplinary artist and arts researcher. Nicole is working with Prof. Nash in Winter 2026 at the Moving Image Lab at UC Santa Cruz, a University counterpart to the Isaac Julien Studio in London.
History of Art and Visual Culture PhD student, Jeppe Ugelvig, is continuing for a second year as a curatorial fellow at the Kramlich Collection in Napa Valley where he is organizing a two-day conference in partnership with the Asia Society and SFMoma and assisting in the production of the Kramlich’s next exhibition, “Ecologies,” opening Summer 2026. Bradford Nordeen, a PhD student in History of Art and Visual Culture, is a year-long exhibition fellow at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures where he is working with the museum’s curatorial team to produce “The Horror Show,” an exhibition exploring the themes, cultural impact, and popularity of the horror film genre.
The THI Moving Image Lab Fellowships are made possible by support from the Division of Graduate Studies and a $1 million Mellon Foundation grant received by the Moving Image Lab, a partnership between the Isaac Julien Lab and The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. The grant funds fine art and moving image research and supports graduate students pursuing careers in the arts and humanities under the leadership of artist, filmmaker, and UCSC Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities Isaac Julien, and his long-time collaborator, Mark Nash, a critic, curator, and UCSC Professor in History of Consciousness. The initiative supports scholars with diverse backgrounds who are interested in pursuing careers in the global fields of art, media art, moving images, and arts curation and research.
Led by Professors Julien and Nash, the Moving Image Lab is a platform for the production of moving images, photographic works, exhibitions, and publications. It is also a space dedicated to the development of innovative pedagogy that prepares students to engage with diverse cultural, historical, and social contexts and connect them to important public conversations about contemporary art.
Congratulations to the 2025-26 THI Moving Image Lab Fellows!
Learn more about THI’s Public Fellowship program and read our profiles of previous fellows here: https://thi.ucsc.edu/public-fellowship-program/